.Backyard Improvements.

Adam and I have been making major improvements to our backyard little by little over the past year and you know what--I have not shared any of them with you! Shame on me, bad bad blogger. 

I think deep down inside I wanted to wait until the area was complete to share it with you but where's the fun in that? The last thirty minutes have been spent finding old photos on my computer..easier said than done..my desktop is a nightmare, absolutely no organization. (Getting back on track now.)

Here are a few exterior shots of our back yard we took after our offer was accepted.

 View from our back deck:

 View from bottom of driveway:

View underneath the deck:

Still looks and feels a bit "construction-y," doesn't it? Thankfully, Adam and I were able to look past all of the cinder blocks and visualize the potential. 

The first job we hired was tree removal. Before buying our home, the house inspector informed us the back tree was rotten inside and could be a major concern. So..

We got it removed and had our pine trees trimmed.

Now you see it:

 Now you don't:

I wish our next improvement came quickly after this but sadly this is how our yard sat for an entire year. Yes, crazy big wood piles and all..it was great, just great.

During that year, we saved..and saved..and saved...any guesses what for?

A fence!

Without going into much detail and without sharing photos, I am simply going to say: We needed a privacy fence to hide from "those" neighbors, ya know--the white trashy kind. Oops, too much? My bad.

You may remember reading about our roller coaster ride here regarding the fencing issue(s). The story ended with Adam and I hiring a surveyor to mark our property (what we should have done in the very beginning--live and learn) and had the fencing company start fresh installing our fence. Our mistakes may have cost extra money, a lot in fact, but we learned a valuable lesson: Do not always listen to what your real estate agent and person selling you the house says about where your property lines are, hire someone from the city to tell you. 

Here is one shot of our new big fence! It is 6 feet across the back and extends up to 8 feet on the side to cover up "those" neighbors. I promise we are not being mean, it had to be done!

Our "good" neighbors installed a 4 foot fence themselves and even though a new matching fence would look perfect--using their fence saved us $4000 dollars. My OCD can look the other way on this one. 

Adam and I are not sure who loves the fence more, our dog or the two of us! :) The privacy is fantastic and knowing our little run away dog cannot get out is extremely comforting. Overall, it was worth all of the money and headaches.

The fencing project wrapped up in early Spring of this year and during the beginning of Summer, I completed our deck makeover with the help of experts in the staining and carpeting world. You can read about the makeover here:

Phases 1 and 2

Phases 3 and 4

Reveal: Phase 5

Quick Before and After:

Just as our deck makeover was completed, Adam and I hired our neighbor (who has his own business doing home improvements) to install siding to the back and side of our house where cinder blocks ruled. We also had him install two new windows in the basement.

Take a look:

 Progress:

 View underneath the deck:

 The picture directly above and below shows another deck feature we had installed for FREE! Adam does video for a living and the deck guy needed a commercial..can we say trade of services? Fabulous!

Check out the commercial here.

Zipup in progress:

Now back to the siding.

Here is the awesome Before and After photo:

View underneath deck with our old patio furniture:

Saying,  "We love it," is the understatement of the year! 

The fresh bright white siding adds much needed warmth and life to our house. The back of our home is feeling almost complete and that excites me to no end.

This was our project list just last week:

- Add matching shutters to downstairs window

- Add caulking around door trim and new vinyl

- Paint trim white

- Paint exterior downstairs door yellow

- Prime both cinder block walls

- Paint both cinder block walls

- Touch up acorn wreath for door

And today:

- Add matching shutters to downstairs window

- Touch up acorn wreath

- Prime one cinder block wall

- Paint one cinder block wall

Woohoo for crossing things off! I completed the work on our downstairs door last week and absolutely love the results. Photos coming soon I promise! Adam and I spent the past two days priming and painting one of the large cinder block walls. It looks amazing! Again, photos and tutorial coming soon.

Good things are coming :) 

Thanks for reading about our backyard improvements! As always, I'd love to hear about any similar projects you have completed recently or are planning to tackle soon.